Making the transition from a fossil fuel–based economy to one based on hydrogen will require “revolutionary, not evolutionary” scientific advances, according to a Department of Energy report that details the challenges in developing a large-scale hydrogen-based energy system. The Bush administration is promoting hydrogen as the clean, efficient energy source of the future, but the report makes clear that such a future may be quite distant.
“Bridging the gaps that separate the hydrogen- and fossil fuel–based economies in cost, performance, and reliability goes far beyond incremental advances,” the report notes. “Fundamental breakthroughs are needed in the understanding and control of chemical and physical processes involved in the production, storage, and use of hydrogen.”
The report is the result of DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences workshop on hydrogen production, storage, and use. The May workshop was chaired by MIT physicist Mildred Dresselhaus, who directed DOE’s Office of Science in the last year...
